I am going back to Nvidia period! The drivers for the 5970 cards are not fine tuned by ATI and I am not going to change drivers every time I play a different game.As many of you know,I have had issues with my system relating to heat and I believe the Proc.,running at 80c and over when gaming was just not right on a liquid cooled system.I called Dell and after some brief conversations with Alienware Tech.and 1 email to Customer support,Dell agreed to give me a full refund even tho the rig as over 5 months old.They have treated me so good that I ordered another Area 51 ALX only this time with Nvidia 480s in SLI.There has been myriad problems with the initial release of these Beasts but after reading the Alienware Club Forums,it appears Dell has pretty much fixed all problems that had driven me nuts since the first rig. I can't say enough about Dell and how I have been treated by them.Who can tell me of any other computer company that have done what Dell has done for me.I always had Nvidia cards in past rigs and I hope I made the right choice.I guess I'll find out.One thing that surprised me was that the Nvidia cards cost more than the 5970s. I will let us know how the new rig performs and whether or not the temperatures were normal for the 980x as Dell told me in the first place.Here I go again.I will hire a forklift to get the thing in my house. Bye all.

Ok and after so much years you never figured out before that dual GPU single card was crap and now you cry because you saw these issue??? seriously...Take 2 5850 in cross fire and you won't have these issue. Also, next time DIY, pre-build system are crap and it's not new that they give issue.

Another thing i should mention. since i dont know anything about your previous computer...

if your GPU was watercooled as well as your CPU, and your CPU was in the loop AFTER your GPU, your GPU could be heating the water up past the point of the CPUs "actual" running temp. In effect, your CPU is then worse off on water than on air, though 80 degrees load temp is still perfectly fine.

I've seen this happen with my own wc system. running prime95 gave me much cooler temps on my cpu than running prime95 and furmark burn in utility at the same time

I am going back to Nvidia period! The drivers for the 5970 cards are not fine tuned by ATI and I am not going to change drivers every time I play a different game.As many of you know,I have had issues with my system relating to heat and I believe the Proc.,running at 80c and over when gaming was just not right on a liquid cooled system.I called Dell and after some brief conversations with Alienware Tech.and 1 email to Customer support,Dell agreed to give me a full refund even tho the rig as over 5 months old.They have treated me so good that I ordered another Area 51 ALX only this time with Nvidia 480s in SLI.There has been myriad problems with the initial release of these Beasts but after reading the Alienware Club Forums,it appears Dell has pretty much fixed all problems that had driven me nuts since the first rig. I can't say enough about Dell and how I have been treated by them.Who can tell me of any other computer company that have done what Dell has done for me.I always had Nvidia cards in past rigs and I hope I made the right choice.I guess I'll find out.One thing that surprised me was that the Nvidia cards cost more than the 5970s. I will let us know how the new rig performs and whether or not the temperatures were normal for the 980x as Dell told me in the first place.Here I go again.I will hire a forklift to get the thing in my house. Bye all.

Damn shame to hear about your troubles. I am glad they made it right for you. Always glad to hear when a company actually goes above and beyond. :)

Where they are sending you a new system I doubt you will want to build another new one anytime soon. BUT when it does come time and if you want to save some $$$ (OK a boat load compared to alienware) and get a bit more out of your chosen hobby, there is a great group of guys here who would be more than willing to help out. Food for thought atleast....and in the mean time...enjoy your new beast!

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